The Basics

Email Invites

When you send an email invite from Groundwork, each player/parent receives an email with a private signup link just for them. They can only signup for that team and the payments that you've specified ahead of time. 

To send an email invite, you can add the player to the team and provide the parent's email address. See the following article on getting set up with players and the team payment schedule: Getting Started


Link Signup

With link signup you share a link that is specific to your Groundwork account, but not to any particular team/program with your account. You can put this on your website, in an email, or wherever works for you. Parents follow the link and choose the team/program they want to signup for from a drop-down list. You can control what appears here by enabling/disabling link signup for specific teams. Checkout our full guide on link signup.


The Pros and Cons


Email Invitations
Link Signup
Pros
  • You can track who has not signed up in addition to who has signed up
  • Groundwork can automatically send  signup reminders, upcoming payment reminders and past due payment reminders to those who have been invited but not signed up. (You can customize these notification settings in the Settings page)
  • You can customize player payments before they signup by applying scholarships and discounts or splitting payments between separated parents

  • Easy to setup, very little data to enter
  • Great for open signups for tryouts and camps or teams that aren't invite-only
  • Can put it on your website

Cons
  • You have to know player names and parents emails ahead of time
  • Not good for tryouts, camps, clinics or teams where you don't know who wants to join the team ahead of time
  • A little bit more upfront work

  • Harder to track who hasn't signed up
  • Groundwork can't send automatic reminders to people not on the roster
  • Anyone can signup
  • Parents could signup for the wrong team


A bit of both (advanced)

You can actually have players/parents signup both ways. 


The most common reason for doing this is if you want most players to signup using the link but you want to add some players individually to customize their payments and send them a private invitation.


Alternatively, you could add all the players to the team ahead of time and turn on link signup. If the parent follows the link signup and uses the same email address you provided for that player, we'll link the account to that player. If they use a different email, we'll add a new player to the team.


When should I use Link Signup?

We suggest using link signup for the following:

  • Tryouts
  • Camps and clinics
  • Lessons
  • Teams with open signups

Example 1: Tryouts

Create a team that players are trying out for and add a tryout fee. Parents can register to tryout using the signup link and pay the fee online. When tryouts are over and you know who is on the team, you can remove the players that didn't make the cut. You can rename the team. You can also edit the payment schedule to include the current season's registration and team fees. The upshot is that since parents have already signed up, all they need to do is approve the new payments, not signup again.


Example 2: Camps and clinics

Most of the time camps and clinics are open to the public to sign up for. Create a team and name it as a camp. Set the payments and then enable link signup. Parents can then use the link to signup and pay.